Last Modified: Friday, May 25, 2012 at 1:01 p.m.

Adam Martin, 28, a quadrapalegic as a result of a spinal cord injury, has been living at Sarasota Memorial Hospital since September 2011 after a nursing home he came from refused to take him back.

staff photo by Mike Lang

The hospital, which has been paying for his 24-hour care, is also eager to see him go. But on Friday its attorney Carol Ann Kalish asked Judge David Denkin to give Martin's legal team until June 14 to find an affordable, wheelchair-accessible residence for him in his own community — before setting a trial date for his eviction.

“The hospital is happy to accede to that in order to give them a chance,” Kalish said. But “we think there are real limitations on what can be accomplished. We're perhaps more cynical about the options, and we don't want it to continue on and on, into infinity.”

The only placement the hospital could find for him — a nursing home in Georgia — no longer has the bed it was offering him. But he could be given the next available spot there if efforts to find Sarasota housing do not succeed. It was Martin's refusal to go to Georgia that triggered the hospital's April 30 move to evict him — a highly unusual step Sarasota Memorial has only taken three times in the last 20 years.

Martin has been paralyzed since June 2009, when his older brother accidentally shot him in the neck. Last year, unhappy with nursing home life and seeking care for a urinary tract infection, Martin had himself taken to Sarasota Memorial's emergency room. The hospital receives no money for Martin's intensive care, even though he is covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, because he now has no medical diagnosis that warrants hospitalization.

Martin's circumstances are unusual, but his plight mirrors that of other young Medicaid patients who require intensive, long-term care. Nursing homes in Florida are reluctant to offer them beds, because it can mean providing costly services over many years at $150 less per day than the going rate. Southwest Florida hospitals must go to great lengths to place such patients, who are often unable to stay in this community.

Martin, who grew up in Sarasota, is on a year-long waiting list for public housing, and needs an inexpensive alternative in the meantime. Medicaid will cover most of his needs for care, but not the cost of an apartment.

“We are still stuck on that part,” his attorney, Elizabeth Boyle of Gulf Coast Legal Services, told the judge Friday. “We are appreciative of the hospital's willingness to work with us.”

<p>A suitable home continues to elude advocates trying to help Adam Martin, a 28-year-old quadriplegic, end his eight-month confinement in a Sarasota Memorial Hospital room.</p><p>The hospital, which has been paying for his 24-hour care, is also eager to see him go. But on Friday its attorney Carol Ann Kalish asked Judge David Denkin to give Martin's legal team until June 14 to find an affordable, wheelchair-accessible residence for him in his own community — before setting a trial date for his eviction.</p><p>“The hospital is happy to accede to that in order to give them a chance,” Kalish said. But “we think there are real limitations on what can be accomplished. We're perhaps more cynical about the options, and we don't want it to continue on and on, into infinity.”</p><p>The only placement the hospital could find for him — a nursing home in Georgia — no longer has the bed it was offering him. But he could be given the next available spot there if efforts to find Sarasota housing do not succeed. It was Martin's refusal to go to Georgia that triggered the hospital's April 30 move to evict him — a highly unusual step Sarasota Memorial has only taken three times in the last 20 years.</p><p>Martin has been paralyzed since June 2009, when his older brother accidentally shot him in the neck. Last year, unhappy with nursing home life and seeking care for a urinary tract infection, Martin had himself taken to Sarasota Memorial's emergency room. The hospital receives no money for Martin's intensive care, even though he is covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, because he now has no medical diagnosis that warrants hospitalization. </p><p>Martin's circumstances are unusual, but his plight mirrors that of other young Medicaid patients who require intensive, long-term care. Nursing homes in Florida are reluctant to offer them beds, because it can mean providing costly services over many years at $150 less per day than the going rate. Southwest Florida hospitals must go to great lengths to place such patients, who are often unable to stay in this community.</p><p>Martin, who grew up in Sarasota, is on a year-long waiting list for public housing, and needs an inexpensive alternative in the meantime. Medicaid will cover most of his needs for care, but not the cost of an apartment. </p><p>“We are still stuck on that part,” his attorney, Elizabeth Boyle of Gulf Coast Legal Services, told the judge Friday. “We are appreciative of the hospital's willingness to work with us.”</p>